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Alright, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter number 10 and chapter 10 is a popular chapter within the book of 2 Corinthians primarily for the fact of we find within chapter 10 verses 3 and 5 which is a popular very familiar verse for us to use about casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. But there's a lot of great principles even found within this chapter and a lot of great reminders for us to learn from and we're going to look at some of those this evening. Look at verse number 1 it says, Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, excuse me, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ who in presence and base among you but being absent and bold toward you, but I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. What is he talking about here in verses 1 and 2? He's telling them, look, when I'm present I'm base among you, being absent you think that I'm just being bold and he says, look, I'm begging you that I may not be bold when I am present with you. And what is he referring to? He's referring to the fact of what he was talking about in 1 Corinthians where he was going to come to them with a rod. He was going to come to chastise them for not practicing church discipline, for not doing things that are according to the word of God and a lot of them they were puffed up according to the Bible. They were so puffed up that they were saying Paul's not going to come and do anything about this. And he's saying these things in his letters, his letters are weighty and they're powerful but when he's present he's contemptible, he's weak. So they're basically calling him out and he's saying, look, I'm meek and I'm base among you but you know what, the same boldness that I have in my letters I'm going to have when I get there. And in fact in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18 it says, now some are puffed up as though I would not come to you but I will come to you shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them which are puffed up but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. What will you? Shall I come unto you with the rod or in love and in the spirit of meekness? So I find it interesting that those who were puffed up were the ones accusing Paul's boldness as being in the flesh. Because if you look at verse, look at verse number 2 it says, but I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. So what is he saying? Look at some people here who are looking at my boldness and oh he's just being fleshly. But you know what we see that today don't we? When someone is taking a stand for God or they're being bold or being confident they're saying oh he's just being in the flesh, he's not walking in the spirit, he's not acting like a Christian. You know why they say this? Because they don't know what the fruits of the Christian are, of the spirit are. They don't know what a true Christian is. In fact they hear pastors ripping face from the pulpit against sin, against false doctrine and they say well that guy's just an angry man. Yeah he's angry at sin. You know they hear them ripping on these false prophets and saying that people aren't saved, these false prophets aren't saved and they'll say well he's not walking in the spirit, he's not being spiritual. No you just don't know what a spiritual person looks like. You've been so infiltrated and inoculated with false teachings and false prophets you wouldn't know a good teacher, a prophet of the Lord if it came and smacked you in the face. So when they see the boldness of the prophet they mistake it for being in the flesh. Though it was true then it's still true today. Now go with me if you went to Philippians chapter 1. I'm going to read to you from 1 John chapter 4 verse 18 you say well what is boldness? Well boldness is not a work of the flesh. You read the characteristics of being in the flesh it'll tell you what the works of the flesh are and none of them are boldness. Boldness is a byproduct of being filled with the spirit but it's when we have the confidence to do what God has commanded us to do without fear. Because the Bible tells us in 1 John 4 there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear has torment he that fearth is not made perfect in love. So what does boldness really mean? Does it mean to be fleshly? It means you don't love God and you're just mean spirited? No it means that you're filled with the spirit and you're willing to portray and convey God's truth without fear. Why is it without fear? Because a lot of the things in the Bible are controversial and they go against the grain of our culture today and so if you were to speak the things of God guess what you're going to get some backlash you're going to get people who don't agree with you you're going to get people who hate you and disagree with you but a man who's filled with the spirit will preach that in spite of all of those consequences. Why because we understand that boldness is having confidence without fear. Look at Philippians 1 12 says but I would you should understand brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel so that my bonds what is my what is bonds is referring to being in jail he says my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all their places and many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So it's one thing to speak the word but it's another thing to speak the word without fear you know kind of like yeah you know adultery is it's wrong I mean it's in the Bible it's wrong or no it's wicked as hell without fear God hates adultery God hates sodomites he hates those who hate the Lord he hates all workers of iniquity that's preaching boldly without fear and that's what these guys were doing Paul's placed in the prison and they're like wow this guy is like doing it for the Lord what did it cause them to do it caused them to have confidence and boldness in the Lord to preach the word of God in spite of the consequences and we saw that this week didn't we with the ladies who were thrown into prison are thrown into jail for preaching the gospel that that dyke who arrested her and just went on this Napoleon power trip you know throwing them onto the ground there's nothing new under the sun they've always done things like this but what does that do that actually causes Christians who are actually reading the word of God who love the Lord to wax bold in the Lord I see you're throwing into jail I'm gonna I'm gonna any that up and go do some more sowing you're not gonna scare us into the into the closets of the church and to say well you know let's just do evangelistic services then you know let's just do track drops and door hangers no we're gonna continue to open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel and that's what it does go with me if you went to Acts chapter 4 Acts chapter 4 but you know you know what's sad about this whole thing is that people who criticize people like Miss Deborah the most are actually Christians you know you're not under authority you're not obeying the laws of the land well you know what you need to get your face out of your your NIV translation of Romans 13 and get into the King James Bible and understand that it's biblical for us to do what we're doing all right you need to obey the laws of the land no we need to obey God rather than the laws of the land okay and I'm all for obeying the laws of the land but when the laws of the land contradict what God's law says we go with what God says don't you know you're gonna suffer the consequence amen even so amen but you know these Christians these phonies these sissified Christians in Baptist churches who do don't do any soul winning they want to get them the people who are actually doing some some preaching they're actually opening their mouth boldly and criticizing oh they're just being in the flesh just like the ones at Corinth we're criticizing Paul oh no you're just being in the flesh no he's just being bold look at Acts 4 11 says this is the so by the way this is our permit okay Acts 4 11 is where we find our permit if you're ever out there preaching the gospel and they're giving you a hard time and they call the police and say do you have a permit do you say yeah let me pull it out for you real quick in fact I even got one you could even take one of these okay give them a copy of the permit it says verse 11 this is the stone which was set at naught of you builders which has become the head of the corner neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men they marveled and took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus so what's the byproduct of spending time with the Lord Jesus Christ boldness when you spend time in the word of God you're reading the Bible you're meditating upon it you're reading it you're memorizing it you're preaching it guess what you're gonna get bold skip down to verse 29 and now Lord behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by them of thy holy child Jesus and when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with what boldness does it say fleshliness no boldness but we have this sissified Christianity today this castrated Christianity where they don't want to rock the boat they don't want to ruffle any feathers they don't want to they don't want to do anything so controversial you know they want to be politically correct is what they want to do they want to obey every police officer that tells them they can't preach the gospel the Bible tells us this is we're supposed to we're not Republican Baptist Church okay and unfortunately a lot of Baptist churches are they're more Republican than they are Christian in their in their core values and beliefs okay but go to Acts chapter 13 Acts chapter 13 you know the God haters tick me off but what really ticks me off is those who claim to be Christians who are criticizing those who are being persecuted shame on you you piece of trash you know to criticize the man of God or the woman of God who's doing the work of God and you're trying to you're trying to defend the God haters you're not doing anything yourself you know why are you even naming the name of Christ if you're fighting against those who are actually doing the work you lazy bum Acts 13 46 says then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said it was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the Gentiles so what do you see here when someone waxes bold they begin to speak the Word of God okay not just give a track not just ding dong ditch with the with the door hanger no they're speaking the Word of God okay the Bible tells us if you don't have to turn there go back to 2nd Corinthians 10 and 1st Thessalonians 2 2 it says but even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated as you know at Philippi we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention so get that there because people say well you know you're being you're being fleshly because you're you're arguing with them it says to preach the gospel of God with much contention what does that mean the Bible says to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints and we need to fight for our right to continue to preach the gospel okay and contend for that thing don't take this lying down pray for bowling so I'm a little scared though you know look having handcuffs on is not that bad I've had them on before you know it's not that bad okay and so and and if you're bold and if you're or if you're scared if you're fearful pray for boldness and be honest with God say Lord I'm fearful I'm scared but I know that's wrong I know that's sinful help me to be bold fill me with your spirit your power to be bold in the Lord to be strong in the Lord and in the power is mine well I don't want nothing to do with this then you know what do you want nothing to do with the work of God because guess what in ten years it's gonna be worse than it is today in 20 years is gonna be a lot worse than what it is today but here we see that these Christians are like well he's not being bold he's just being in the flesh look at verse number three for though we walk in the flesh we did not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds so it goes without saying that we are in a spiritual battle you know and we've heard that said before many times but it is true we need to be reminded of that you know because sometimes if we're not careful we can get fleshly sometimes and think that we're fighting a spiritual battle with physical weapons okay you know and by the way I'm including myself in that you know if you're not careful someone can get to your head or something you want to get in a physical fight with someone where in actuality we just got to remind ourselves we're in a spiritual battle now this can range anywhere from getting into a physical fight with someone to just get in an argument or a debate when you're out sowing you know that you're not being spiritual at that point you're you're fighting a spiritual battle with fleshly things and in fact later on in the chapter he says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal and what's the contrast of that but mighty so what is that saying of that which is carnal it's weak so that which is not mighty is weak and what does he say that which is being weakest it's being carnal it's when you're fighting you're arguing you're debating people I don't want to debate anybody when I'm out sowing him I don't want to waste my time I don't want to just drive home a point into their face and have them walking away ticked off at me I want to win him to Christ and if they want to argue then I don't want nothing to do with that conversation oh yeah but I told him what'd you tell him you know that person's still gonna die and go to hell you know you think you get rewards for that we need to make sure that we understand that when we're out there preaching the gospel we're going out there with a soft heart with love in our hearts with the gospel and we want to win them to Christ we need to plead with them we're not competing with them we're pleading with them okay we need to persuade them and and have the love in our hearts to say because look if we and look before you out sowing as pray you know say Lord help me to win someone today help me to be filled with the Spirit you know leave me to the people who want to talk who want to who want to be saved don't just go out there in the flesh like oh yeah I got this down pack I already got my Romans Road I memorize all the verses no you need to pray and depend on God still and that's got to help you and that's got the food with the spirit so you're not carnal when you're going out there okay we want to avoid that as much as possible when we're out there doing warfare but let me say this because people will hear things like that and they think yeah but you guys just like you know throw people out of your church and stuff and you know you guys believe in defending yourselves yeah well if someone threatens me and let me just make something very clear if someone threatens to physically want to fight me I'm not a beta Baptist if you threaten to fight me you say you're gonna come down to church to fight me I'm gonna assume you're gonna want to fight me and guess what you're gonna get your rear end handed to you once you get here you're gonna get your hanger parts handed to you if you come here that's not a threat I'm just telling you and warning you that's what's gonna happen if you come okay so if someone threads is over there I'm gonna come kick here you know what I'm not looking for a fight but you know what I'm still we're still gonna have church on Sunday we're still gonna have church on Thursday so if someone shows up one in a fight they're probably gonna find a fight not because I'm trying to be carnal but because I need to defend myself I have my family here I have my wife here my children here there's the people of God who are here and so we're not looking for a fight but we're not beta males either you know we need to make sure that as men we have this mentality we're not looking for fights but if the fights come to us hey we need to make sure we defend ourselves learn how to punch or something you know learn how to do a push kick or a hip toss hey man where's building me longer hip toss or something you know so don't get this twisted don't get a mistake in there just because we say we're nonviolent which we're not does not mean that we're not gonna defend ourselves as someone cuz you know someone this week and last week we're threatening to come down here and fight us and I call that person I was like look if you come you're gonna get thrown out you come you're gonna get thrown out and I left out the details of what that included because look I don't know if someone comes here and they're there they want to fight then I'm just gonna assume that we're gonna get down and I'm gonna assume that this person is really trying to cause harm to my family and I we're gonna have to do something about that it's not like one here go ahead take your best shot you know Jesus loves you and no at that point I'm in you know protection protection mode where it's like you're probably gonna get knocked out and we'll drag you out and you'll wake up we'll put a copy in your hand and a cookie in your other hand and you can just wake up okay but this isn't beta Baptist Church so don't think you can just come here that the Christians are just these weaklings who you can just walk all over because our religion teaches non-violence yeah we don't teach to violate people but if you're threatening to violate us then at that point we get to defend ourselves and guess what that's not called violence that's called defense they don't understand that so don't don't we never want to have this atmosphere in our church that we're violence because we're not you know we're just looking to pick a fight with just anybody okay but the mentality we do want to have is that hey we need to protect our wives we need to protect our children we need to protect our brethren you know if one of the brethren is getting jumped outside you know I'm jumping in okay oh you guys are ghetto no that's just that's that's just manliness that's manhood you think we should oh man I'm the pastor I can't I can't I'm wearing a suit man what do you I mean that's not the type of Christianity we have here you know and look if pastors in these liberal fund centers and yeah even the Baptist churches would start preaching like this they wouldn't fill their churches with a bunch of ladies you know why ladies like to go to church more than men because the pastors who are at those churches are a bunch of feminine guys as well they preach to the ladies is what they do men don't want to go to a service like that that's a crappy sermon to listen to you're not getting anything out of that biblical Christianity this this is a male-oriented book you know this is a male-oriented religion and it appeals to the alpha male because Jesus Christ is a man he's not that faggoty looking long-haired hippie with the dress that you see at the Catholic Church someone tried to like offend me one time and they brought it out like a Bible with that faggoty Jesus like is this your Jesus I'm like I don't know who that is man cuz I had some queer from the from the Renaissance or something he's just like stared at me like in shock you know this is not beta male Baptist Church this faithful we're Baptist Church aka alpha male Baptist Church okay so I just want to make that very clear that you guys are gonna understand the difference between violence and defending yourself all right so I don't know where I was going with that but it was good and good Ephesians chapter 6 well talk about spiritual warfare okay so spiritual warfare but we do still live in the flesh so we got to understand that our focus is the spiritual battles and we fight those spiritual battles with prayer we fight it with Bible reading we fight it with behind the pulpit we fight it with soul winning you know that's how we fight these spiritual battles and and some of us we need to make sure that we're fit spiritually speaking okay there were prayed up there were read up they were walking in the spirit and not in the flesh that we're making sure that we're that we're doing things that are pleasing unto the Lord because you know no man that worth entangled himself with the affairs of this life look at Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 10 it says finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil it says for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of faith wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit watching their into with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador and bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak so we see there that the armor does not include anything fleshly you know by the way make sure look I'm not against push-ups I'm not against weight training I'm not against fighting you know doing kickboxing or Muay Thai but it doesn't say any of that when it comes to the spiritual battle it says these important these are the important elements to a spiritual battle now do those other things because you don't want to you don't want to have a weak punch like you know brother me he said don't do any weights but so here goes nothing you know no you want to sure that you do do something go buy a punching bag you know strengthen your wrists you know do knuckle push-ups that strengthens your wrists okay you know do something to make sure that you're you're you're physically fortified as a man ladies don't don't do that stuff okay I'm talking to the men here man you guys gonna make sure that you do because especially if you want to get married or especially if you're already married now you got a family to protect amen and you know as a man you got to make sure that you provide for your family but also protect your family okay for many dangers but here see this list is a compilation of spiritual things that we need and one of the things here is like look them I may open my mouth boldly he said pray for me you know that tells me that we need to pray for each other so pray for boldness for yourself make sure you're praying for your brethren as well to be bold don't assume everyone is bold pray for the brethren that they are both pray for me that I can continue to have boldness we need to pray for each other to make sure because when the time hits and and persecution comes and afflictions arise don't assume that everyone's spiritual already they were walking in the spirit we need to pray God please embolden the members of Faith Ward Baptist Church embolden brother so-and-so and sister so-and-so make sure please fill in with your power your spirit to be bold in the Lord to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might so we see in 2nd Corinthians that the weapons of our warfare are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds and we need to make sure that we take the elements found in Ephesians 6 and apply them on a daily basis go to that checklist you know make sure that you're you're adding these things and you're putting these things on every single day because we're in a spiritual battle go back to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 so it says there the weapons of our warfare are they're mighty through God through the pulling down of strongholds now what is a stronghold a stronghold is a place that is fortified in order to protect from anything outside is trying to attack okay but it's also ideologies in the spiritual sense it's it's ideologies or ideas that basically are set up in our minds or that we set up in our in our minds through bad habits through teachings through indoctrination whatever it may be but God wants us to be mighty and he wants us to be powerful not so we can flex our spirituality but so we can tear down the strongholds you see you need to read your Bible not so you not just so you can have knowledge but it's so you can tear down strongholds you want to be a great soul winner okay not just to see people saved that's the most important thing but so that you can tear down strongholds you want to make sure that you are growing spiritually that you know the Bible that you know what you believe not so you could just flex your spiritual muscles but so that you can tear down strongholds it's for warfare and we need to make sure we have the mentality hey we're in a war don't put don't put life on cruise control don't let everyone else fight and you sit on the bench don't let everyone else go soul winning and you sit down don't do nothing don't let everyone else do the work and you just sit you just sit down and just watch everyone and just be a spectator get in the fight we are in a spiritual battle spiritual warfare and that which is being topped from the pulpit the things that you learn in your personal Bible reading is so that you can tear down strongholds as well okay the Bible tells us that Jesus will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it gates is something that you do to keep things out so that means we got to charge hell amen charge hell and the forces of darkness and everything that's evil and just fight we don't we're not just defending ourselves we're actually fighting as well you know when you're boxing you don't win just defending yourself right you never no one's ever won just blocking and making sure they don't get punched the blocking is for the purpose of you just knocking the dude out so you can win the battle okay go to Acts chapter 26 Acts chapter 26 so we are in a spiritual battle and you know this is true especially in regards to soul winning because the more we're sowing the more spiritual battles are going to arise look what it says in verse 17 delivering thee from the people and from the gentiles and to whom now i send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of satan unto god that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me so what does it say look god is sending us out jesus said you know as god has sent me so send i you what do we what did jesus come do he came to seek it to save that which is lost he came to rescue people from the clutches of satan he's sending us to do the same exact thing so we need to make sure that we have spiritual eyes that when we're knocking on the door and that person comes through the door it's not just the person who might be interested or might not be interested there's a spiritual battle that's taking place that you cannot see and when the person is rude to you or maybe they're just not interested don't get mad at them recognize there's a spiritual battle taking place here you know i've seen it multiple times i saw it today where this kid was listening to brother polities he was giving him the gospel and the kid was interested and the mom just kept coming and coming and coming to take the kid away and sure enough he was just like i just got a couple more minutes i just want to share this last thing with them she said fine as soon as he was getting to the the very end of the message she's like okay we're done we need to go and pull them away you know i was grieved at that yeah i wasn't mad at her i wasn't mad at the at the kid i was mad at the fact that you know what satan was able to intervene and stop that gospel presentation from being finished now thankfully that seed was sown okay and i believe that that seed will germinate one day and lord willing that kid will get saved but there we got that's how we got a few things you know all but they're repenting your sins though but maybe satan has deceived them to become repenting your sins and they need someone to come help them and teach them what's the right way of salvation so see it as a spiritual battle don't see it as a physical battle you're getting into with people we're delivering them from the power of satan now go back to second corinthians chapter number 10 we'll keep reading here so it says here there are the weapons of our warfare are for the purpose of of throwing down these strongholds okay look what it says here in verse number five casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ so there's two important applications that i want to make about these this very powerful verse right here first and foremost i want to talk about what is an imagination okay an imagination is the forming of mental images or concepts that are not reality but they can become a reality okay now here's the great thing about imaginations i love having an imagination and i think the imagination was a gift from god you know why because we would say an imagination for us is is a vision it's what potentially can be it's the potential works that we can do for god one day it's the ability that god has given to us to imagine 20 years from now of what can become or what we can do for the lord and why is that important because when we imagine big for god we have big dreams and big visions for god it gives us hope and it motivates us to make the certain decisions today so we can arrive at that destination tomorrow it it helps us to basically put plans into action so that we can arrive 20 years from now and fulfill that vision or the imagination we have so imagination is very important but we need to make sure that we are receiving the sources of our imagination from the right source which is the bible okay preaching soul winning the things that we're supposed to imagine for right now just as imagination can be used for good it can be used for a lot of evil as well okay obviously when you understand that the reprobates they're inventors of evil things okay what does that mean they can only imagine evil things but that's not to say that christians or even unsafe people can't imagine those things as well why because they're so inoculated with television hollywood movies and just false ideologies that can get them to think only bad things that's why you gotta make sure that you don't watch any television oh just just just a little bit not any television well i just like this one job not any you know and look if you're wondering where you struggle and pay attention in church it's probably because of that where you just have to tune in every once in a while it's probably because you're too you're watching too much television you need to make sure that your attention span is good enough to pay attention to the spiritual truths coming to you because it's probably an answer to prayer that you're going to receive it's an instruction you're going to receive to win that spiritual battle but here's the thing imaginations are good but it can be bad as well now if they're gone unchecked our imaginations can lead us down a wrong path a dark path because they're very powerful you know for men it could be this matter of lust okay where you're just your imagination takes you into a dark place where you don't check your imagination and what happens is eventually you will act out that what you're imagining for ladies it could be fear things of anxiety depression whatever it may be and these things could inoculate your could inject itself into your imagination and eventually you begin to behave what you're imagining okay and look sometimes people just have imaginations you know you come to church and you're just like i don't though i don't think so-and-so likes me at all and it's just like what are you talking about it's just like well they looked at me a certain way or they smell a certain whatever but you know what it is it's your imagination you say well this is not what does this have to do with anything it's important that you make sure you check your imaginations that's what it says cast down imaginations okay you know if you're fearful stop imagining fearful things if you're always afraid why are you always afraid you need to stop looking at things that are making you afraid you know just think about the things that you think about throughout the day what is your mind thinking about the majority of the day hopefully it's the things of god it's your responsibilities it's work when you're at work it's family when you're with family but if it's this one thing that's causing you to stumble it probably means you're placing something before your eyes your eye gate and your ear gate that's causing you to imagine those things okay the bible says you don't have to turn in genesis 6 5 and god saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually jeremiah 7 24 says but they harken not nor incline their ear but walked in the counsels and the imagination of their evil heart and went backward and not forward so we see there that the imagination that they had they walked in that it goes to show that if you imagine something long enough you're going to do that what you're imagining okay and you can fill in the blank or whatever that may be with everyone it's different the important thing is is that when that imagination comes in or you begin to imagine those things that you cast it down and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ so look at roman chapter 7 if you would go to roman chapter 7 casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ so what are we supposed to throw down because what does it mean to cast out means to throw something down what do we throw down everything that doesn't align with god's word if your imagination does not align with god's word then you need to throw it out we need to have a minimalist mind you guys know what minimalism is you guys ever heard of that minimalism is like you get rid of everything that you don't use or want you don't be a hoarder in other words your house is just filled with you ever met people like that you might be one of those you you know where your house is just filled with stuff that you never use you never touch and it's just like just collecting dust it's like i don't want to throw this away because we might use it like in 10 years or something it's like throw it away and get it 10 years from now you can save up the money to buy whatever that is oh but it has sentimental value someone gave it to me you know it's a it's a piece of wrapper some i don't know whatever it may be that's a hoarder well you know people could do that even with their imaginations where they just hoard all kinds of thoughts you know we need to make sure that we do a a cleanup and go in our minds and cast down everything that doesn't belong there good so we're not using this i don't need this thought i don't need this i don't need this everything that aligns with god's word that's what i need well i'm just worried about something that might happen in the future if it's not a reality toss it out you know i'm not saying don't care for anything we need to care for those things that need to be cared for the things that are immediate that have to do with our families but if it's something that it's not even real if it's something that might happen in the future but it's not even 100 sure cast it out it doesn't even belong there because it's only going to make you worse okay so we throw out everything that doesn't align with god's will we we reject it we decide not to think about it and then we have to bring it into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ say what's going to help me obey christ okay look at romans 7 23 it says there but i see another law on my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members so what happens if these things don't go checked you know what happens is that those imaginations begin to take you captive okay and look i'm going to share something with you that something that i struggled with years ago was this matter of anxiety i used to have anxiety a lot okay and part is because i just had too much coffee amen but it was just a matter of of and i remember like i have a relative who's a doctor and this is years ago and i remember i was telling i was like yeah i keep having these anxiety attacks and it's just like getting worse and he says well let me give you some some drugs you know and i'm like i don't want any drugs i was like just tell me what's wrong with me and he goes well typically your anxiety is a result of you imagining something and then you you think it's going to happen and therefore you because you're thinking about it you know you just go into just this panic mode and once he said that it just clicked and i was just thinking myself i'm in sin man because i'm not thinking of those things which are lovely those things which are true those things which are righteous those things which are holy so i'm not i'm not taking my thoughts captive and as soon as he said that i hit that thing running and when he said that i fought that tooth and nail to make sure that i had the right thoughts i've never struggled with that ever since then because it's a matter of imagination is what it is you know we need to make sure that we think on the here and now and the only things that we allow to surpass into the years to come is those visions that we have for god okay the bible says in philippians 4a finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things now look going back to that whole medication thing christians do that with their thoughts you know because the medication does not help with anything it actually makes you worse and you become a drug addict you know using all these prescription things and it doesn't help any well what do christians do instead of going to the word of god instead of praying be careful for nothing but in all things by prayer supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto god and the what peace of god shall keep your hearts and minds through jesus christ our lord that's that's god's remedy but you know people do instead they get into sin they use alcohol they use weed you know they they get high or they use some extracurricular activity to get their mind off of that which they're worrying that's not going to help you you need to get into the bible is what you need to get into you need to take your captive your thoughts to the obedience of christ that's the only thing that's going to help you in that area now so this applies to our personal lives when we have strongholds you know things that you just can't get over maybe it's it's a it's something that happened in the past you know that's something that hurts you deeply you know that's probably a stronghold that you need to get over okay and if you know that that's a stronghold in your life don't ignore it don't let it be the elephant in the room in your heart or it's like everything's going good except i still have this one thing you know that one thing whatever it may be you need to make sure you handle that thing because it's going to destroy you in the end okay now this applies personally but it also applies on a much grander scale because strongholds not only exist within individuals but individuals make up what societies and what do societies have they have strongholds embedded in them as well false ideologies that they believe that are contrary to the word of god and so we as christians need to fight against that you see when a society becomes hostile towards the things of god it is our responsibility to cast those strongholds down when society says that soul winning is bad guess what we're supposed to do cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god we're supposed to take the weapons of our warfare and throw that thing down okay don't take it lying down don't just go with the flow don't just go with the current of the culture fight against it when they say soul is bad we need to lift up our voice like a trumpet cry out loud and say we're going to do it anyways because that's what god said you know when society says that faggotry is okay we need to open our mouths boldly and say no it's wicked as hell those people deserve death i can't believe you just said that well you know why because you've been inoculated by the society's imaginations the why do the people imagine a vain thing you know society is filled with false ideologies and we as pastors as christians as evangelists need to tear those things down don't go along with them now let me give you a couple example of this okay you know obviously this is this already passed yesterday but halloween and i know many sermons have been preached on this but this ticks me off the pastors these supposed men of god never touch this with the temple pole they don't talk about it at all they don't want to preach against it you know why because their kids are out there going hollow i was going to say so many halloweening you know their kids are the ones dressing up like devils worshiping the devil on the 31st so they're too scared to say anything from the pope in regards to that because it'll make them look like what like hypocrites well guess what they're already hypocrites because they're letting their kids do it oh they're just trying to have fun you know what sodomites want to have fun too does that make it right what they do so don't give me this whether you know it's nothing bad it's the devil's night well everyone's doing it so what yeah if that person jumped off a bridge would you do too no okay so we as christians when this stuff comes around we need to be the ones who are casting down that imagination say hey just one of the sorry to crash the party christians but your trunk or treat is wicked sorry to you know crash the party on this on this whole fun that you're having here i know you already bought your frozen costume but trick or treating and trunk or treat is wicked as hell and you're worshiping satan actually and your daughter's dressed like a whore because that girl in frozen is a whore sorry to crash the party on you about that she's not a princess she's a whore and every princess from disney is a rebellious girl who has forsaken the the her her leader her father's okay they she's forsaken the covenant of her youth she's not under authority and then she's teaching every single person and who's watching her to be the same sorry sorry to rain down on your parade but i'm i'm just here to cast down this stronghold and just kill the party okay but you know that's called it's called a reality check that people need and pastors hate that stuff they hate when this one pastor these two pastors get up and they say these things well whether you hate it or not you know i hate every false way so your pastors need to get right with god and and put their children in subjection without gravity and say we're not doing halloween anymore you know i'll make you i'll order you a pizza if you want for the 31st but you ain't going nowhere we're not doing this this is the devil's holiday but the second thing is this matter of preaching the gospel and this is relevant because of what happened this week that they arrested uh uh these these soul winners for preaching the gospel you know society's beginning to think that this is bad and this is nothing new even when i was at my old church i remember when i was at my old church i went soloing with with two other guys and this is in monterrey park this is a couple years ago and i remember we're out sowing and we're coming back and the police pulls us over with guns drawn like get out of the car now they had me get out i mean i'm in my suit i have parted hair no beard at the time you know and they had me walk backwards you know this is before i knew like all my rights and stuff like that and like and i was really young at that time and they're patting me down and stuff they're taking stuff out of my pocket and i'm like these guys are gonna kill us i'm like what are you doing this for and they put me in handcuffs they put the two of my buddies in handcuffs one of them was a brand new christian this is his first time out sowing crash course and they sit us on the curb we were there for like an hour and a half they're just going through my vehicle and they're like we got a call that you guys were doing home invasions home invasions they said they said that you two because the guy who was a brand new christian he didn't have a suit because he just got saved you know and but the other guy did and they're saying that the guys with the suits were going up to the doors knocking on the doors and then the other guy was going around back to basically do the home invasion you know this god hater is the one who called them you know and look i can't stand the police and they irritate the fire out of me but you know what irritates me more than them is the god haters who are actually calling they have the audacity to just waste time and call and tell people that we're out doing a home invasion and they kept us there for an entire hour and he's like you're trying to tell me that you're going to these doors and try to invite them to your church and giving them the word of god i'm like look at i got tracks on me i told i was like get the invites from my pockets the police officers did not believe me i was like i go to pacific baptist church it's down the street you know i had the invites the bibles are right there now i will say this this is really funny so he's like what do you mind if we search your car like your trunk and stuff i was like go for it you're not gonna find anything but i i forgot that my friend earlier that day say hey man uh i'm not gonna be riding my bike to work someone's gonna give me a ride but i took it this far you mind if i put it in your trunk i'm like yeah go for it so you put his bike in my trunk and the guy pops over in the trunk he's like oh what's this i'm like okay that i can explain that you know it's like that's my friend you know and then he ended up believing me afterwards or whatever but he wasted my my stinking time you know when we could have been out there doing some actual soul winning preaching the gospel seeing people saved and look this even happened to us in our church brother hike and chad when the when the when some dyke called the police officer on them called the police on them and wasted their time made a huge scene about the entire thing it happened marcos and justin zong for the sony marathon to santa maria now the funny thing about that is during the santa maria marathon we had he had the shirt that we designed that said eat preach repeat and some god hater called the police and said yeah that guy's begging for money because it says eat preach repeat you know foolishness go to act chapter five act chapter five but you know what it's getting to a point where it's becoming very ridiculous and it's going to get to a point where we're going to get arrested they're going to throw us in jail but you know what that's not going to change anything we're going to keep going out there keep sony and we're going to still see a lot of people saying okay look at verse 27 it says for one and when they had brought them they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying didn't we not straightly command you you should not teach in this name and behold you have filled jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us then peter and the other apostles answered and said we ought to obey god rather than man amen but christians today we ought to obey man rather than god romans 13 where are you getting that from it's not from my king james bible you're getting that from somewhere else right you know and they rather and i i'm sick of the comments i'm sick of what people are saying oh you guys brought that upon yourselves yeah you know why because we're so many that's the byproduct of it what are you doing you little weakling of a christian nothing you know you will fit perfectly within the new world order you know you're gonna be you're gonna be the police state's little slave we ought to obey god rather than man no matter what happens okay and just just be ready for it it's gonna happen you know and and look when it happens thank god for it rejoice leap for joy because it's gonna take place so look now's the time fellas now's the time ladies to actually get serious about the things of god now's not the time to be in and out of church being inconsistent flopping in and out not reading your bible not praying showing up once a month being a morning sunday morning glory now it's time to get your butt in church now is the time we're living in the best time ever to be a christian you don't want to waste this right don't be a sunday morning glory and just come sunday morning to get your your spiritual little high going on and then go home and do nothing for the rest of the week you need to get in church you need to read your bible you need to start doing some soul winning you need to start getting serious about the things of god because look if you want to save your life you need to lose it you know those who are trying to save their lives they're going to lose it those they're going to lose it by by actually being killed or something you know but if you're actually willing to lose your life god says you can keep it i want to be the one who keeps the life amen so i can do greater works so don't think if well i'm just going to be on the sideline i'm not going to do anything i'm just going to be a spectator you're going to lose it god's going to be like because he runs a minimalist program too amen you're cast forth as a branch you're withered men men gather you cast into the fire and you are burned the bible says you know the bible tells us that you're going to be cast out trotting under the foot of men why because you're useless you're you're you're just a lazy christian now's the time and look use these examples of what's happening this week and use the examples we see in the word of god to motivate you to say man i need to stop like messing around i need to start getting serious about the things of god and don't put god's work on the on the back burner right now now's not the time to do that because when the time comes you know when the bible says that they endured for a little while but in a time of persecution they fell away that's going to be you you're going to fall away and it's going to be a shame okay we want to make sure that we're read up we're prayed up we're filled with the holy ghost we're doing what we can and look we all grow at different paces but we all are on the same race though we're all on the same track we're running at different paces but we're on the same track and sometimes people take a break and they get out of the track they get out of church they get out of their bibles that's not the answer if you need to slow down a little bit slow down on the track but you need to stay on the track oh but people are lapping me by let them lap you by you're not racing with them okay get in church don't be hit and miss read your bible if you feel like this too much slow down a little bit take your time but you need to stay on the track stay in the fight okay so you know these god haters and and you know what let them call the police and they sent they sent us the little form that we can use when we go out somewhere we're going to be using that but at the end of the day here's our form amen this is the form we're going to be using and look carry an extra one so you can give that one to the police obviously you could take this to your sergeant here's here's our permit right here i can i can highlight all there's a bunch of permits in there actually where god permits us to do this okay and he's like well don't just don't just stop doing this don't come back no we're gonna come back here we're gonna come we're gonna keep coming back here because our church is located in Omani and this is where we're gonna continue to go okay we're not gonna disobey god and look so what are we doing as christians we need to cast down those strongholds throw down those strongholds cast down imagination and bring society back into alignment with what god's word says bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ and i'm hoping that society and christians who are in this society will wake up and say you know what maybe i'm on the wrong side of the fence i need to get into this fight right here the bible says and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and breed glad tidings of good things that's what we need to bring into alignment that soul owners are beautiful amen no matter how ugly you are not they're preaching the gospel you got beautiful feet okay maybe not physically but spiritually go to verse six of chapter 10 we're almost done i like what it says look at verse six says and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled you know what that means when they hit we hit harder we're gonna revenge all disobedience when our obedience is fulfilled look that's a that's applicable personally that when we fail we falter that we we need to make sure that when we correct something when we repent that we go the second mile we'll revenge all disobedience but in this matter of just society in general when society pushes when the world pushes we push back and we push hard and we make sure that they feel it we're just oh okay sorry we'll go to the other place thank you officer i'm gonna say oh no i'm coming back i'm gonna arrest you you're gonna have to arrest me and once i get out i'm gonna do it again because this is my right and you work for me because i'm a taxpayer buddy yeah right we don't have idiots in our church look at verse seven do ye look on things after the outward appearance if any man trusts to himself that he is christ let him of himself think this again that as he is christ even so are we christ for though i should boast somewhat more of our authority which the lord hath given unto us for edification not for your destruction i should not be ashamed that i may not seem as if i would terrify you by letters so what does he mean by terrify you by letters he's telling me look you know this letter i'm sure they're reading they're like man paul's tits they're terrified right looking for sentences for his letters say they are weighty and powerful but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible what are they saying yeah he talks the talk he's he's he's full of fluff he's not going to walk the walk because his letters he talks like he's going to do something but in presence he's weak and he's contentable the contemptible means despicable he's just like he's not going to do anything well let's look at verse 11 let such and one think this that such as we are in words by letters when we are absent such will we be also indeed when we are present amen he says go ahead and keep thinking that because i'm gonna let you know right now that what i am in my letters i'm gonna be when i'm present amen so just as you think that i'm weighty and powerful in my letters that's exactly how i'm gonna be when i'm present what is he saying i'm walking i'm talking to talk but i'm also walking the walk as well okay i'm not a hypocrite and look that's the kind of attitude we need to have as well that what we believe we actually believe it you know whether home or a church or when we're out sowing this is what we believe and we're weighty and powerful when we're preaching when we talk about what we believe but it's also true when we're present before the enemies of god okay so i like what he i like that he said that he's just like you know go ahead keep thinking that you know but it's going to be the exact same thing when i'm actually present with you verse 12 says for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves comparing themselves among themselves are not wise reminds me of like pastors who are like yeah we're king james only you know but when it comes down to it they're not you know they're not they're weighty and powerful in regards to what they believe but when they're behind the pulpit they're little weaklings they don't want to exercise church discipline they don't want to they don't want to even claim for the pulpit that they're king james only what an embarrassment to be a king james only pastor and not be willing to even mention the king james bible behind the pulpit verse 13 but we will not boast of things without our measure but according to the measure of the rule which god had distributed to us a measure to reach even unto you and well we're going to finish that because we're out of time so what's the message today the message is simply this look that verse is great verse five verse three to five about casting down imaginations and the strongholds we need to apply that personally because satan will attack individuals they'll attack the male okay by the way ladies pray for your husbands don't you oh yeah but he's not even that spiritual god placed them there okay and don't think you're more spiritual than him okay and if and if you do think you're more spiritual than him then that goes to show you that you're probably not spiritual at all because god has placed them there and he's the authority and he's the one that satan wants to attack the most so pray for your husband pray for your children pray for the church members that were bold that were able to cast down these imaginations and make sure that you have a fort that you gird up the loins of your mind don't be careless in the way you think don't be careless about what you read don't be careless about what you watch don't be careless about what you listen to we need to make sure that we're girding up the loins of our mind that we're strong in the lord and the power of his might so that we can not only can we cast down the strongholds in our mind we can cast down the strongholds that are in society as well when this stuff comes up we're ready to fight we're ready to war amen inspire heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word thank you for second corinthians chapter 10 please lord help us to be bold i pray you fill us all with your power and your spirit help us to be a church that does great works for you and and preaches the word of god boldly i pray god that you would remove any fear from this church from doing any great works help us to be bold and confident in what we do for you and to trust in you and i pray god that you would reward reward us abundantly for it thank you so much for all these members in our church lord i pray you continue to bless us and help us to see more people saved even in the midst of persecution and affliction when it comes that we would continue to obey you rather than men and in jesus name we pray amen you